Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” Speech Almost Didn’t Happen

One of U.S. history’s most consequential gatherings and speeches almost didn't happen. On August 27, 1963, the night before Martin Luther King Jr. speech, he and his colleagues set up shop in Washington, D.C.’s Willard Hotel, where they made some final preparations for King’s speech the next day.

“Don’t use the lines about ‘I have a dream’,” adviser Wyatt Walker told King, according to the Guardian. “It’s trite, it’s cliche. You’ve used it too many times already.”